The decision was rationalized by the mayor and the city council majority as a false choice between public safety and “non-core” services, like commercial trash pickup. But the mayor, the city manager, and a right-wing majority on the board have been moving in this direction for a long time, at the exclusion of other money-saving ideas.

By “franchising” the service to two private companies, the city hopes to skim over two million dollars from the solid waste operation every year and put it into the general fund. The two million dollars will come from franchise fees paid by the private vendors in a backdoor trick that allows the city to take targeted money and spend it on unrelated services.

Bottom line: it's a hidden tax on local businesses. Now local restaurants, hair salons and apartment owners will be paying for miscellaneous city services twice, once through normal taxes, and again through their trash bills. It's a rip-off for them, it's a disaster for our members, and it's another bad city council decision that will have consequences far into the future.

We have one more chance to kill this narrow-minded, dishonest scheme. There's a final vote on January 6, 2011, and we hope a new council majority will resist balancing the city budget on the backs of the workers. Click here to watch the news coverage.